Does the media effect politics?

Fabio

Hi guys,

First every post on this section!!!

I've been thinking a lot about the media and how it can shape your perception of a politician or a political action and I am wondering is the media shaping my thoughts on politics or is the media just informing me and I am forming my own opinion from info gathered.

Basically does the media effect politics???

Does the media really make politicians more accountable or whatever?

I think it may do but then at the same time you could say that it is not the media but the public who are putting on the pressure as the media are simply a window for the public and that the media's issues are only what the public are already thinking...

Any thoughts?

Firetrap

I don't think the media alone can affect how people think about politics but it can help confirm what they want to think.

As an example, I saw John Drennan on The Panel last night - the man is obsessed with Brian Cowen and not in a good way. Personally, I don't think his tirades against the Taoiseach most weeks in the Sindo are affecting how people think about him and his government. My guess is that the government isn't doing so well in the opinion polls at the moment because of the budget and the way the economy is going, rather than what journalists are writing. Of course, people know how things are going because of the media but I think political commentary and reporting of the news are two different things.

I've a feeling in this case that people who hate Fianna Fáil and Brian Cowen will get more of a kick out of what the likes of John Drennan are writing than people who have less fervent folk. Kinda like the people who read An Phoblacht are of a republican leaning. Preaching to the converted if you like.

I don't think the magic bullet theory holds any sway - the idea that what media commentators say will have a direct effect on what people think.

BenjAii

I think the heydey of "the media", as some monolithic entity, influencing the population has gone with the 20th century.

Newspaper & TV stations of old are breaking down and beginning to merge with the internet, a place where people are forced to think for themselves rather than have their opinion force fed to them.

Though interestingly, plenty of people seem to be able to use the internet to reinforce there already formed ideas, so I'm not suggesting it is making everyone open minded, just that people are starting to have to build arguments and opinions for themselves, not recycle them from newspapers, as people might have done 20 years ago.

marcsignal

BenjAii wrote: »

I think the heydey of "the media", as some monolithic entity, influencing the population has gone with the 20th century.

Newspaper & TV stations of old are breaking down and beginning to merge with the internet, a place where people are forced to think for themselves rather than have their opinion force fed to them.

Though interestingly, plenty of people seem to be able to use the internet to reinforce there already formed ideas, so I'm not suggesting it is making everyone open minded, just that people are starting to have to build arguments and opinions for themselves, not recycle them from newspapers, as people might have done 20 years ago.

I'd agree with that I think, certainly 20 years ago,or more, the media could make or break presidents and politicians, the Kennedy and Nixon presidential debate is one example (Nixon looked Sweaty and unshaven), and the way Maggie Thatcher used the media during the Falklands war, arguably 'she' (The Producer) was clapped all the way back to No. 10 for another term.

Fabio

I'd think, and reading ye're posts I think ye're on the same boat here, that the media AFFECTS (thanks firetrap!) politics but only in that the politicians try to please the media.

However the people are not really influenced by the media as such, despite the politcians aiming to please it so much.